Of Army Days and Galvanized Friendships
by SabbyStarlight
Summary: "Okay now, you might have arranged the meeting, but our friendship was galvanized through hardship. We did that on our own." Or: a place for me to keep all the little Army fics that I've had floating around forever about our two favorite boys becoming brothers.


" **Okay now, you might have arranged the meeting, but our friendship was galvanized through hardship. We did that on our own."**

 **Or: a place for me to keep all the little Army fics that I've had floating around forever about our two favorite boys becoming brothers.**

 **Of Army Days and Galvanized Friendships**

" **Okay now, you might have arranged the meeting but our friendship was galvanized through hardship. We did that on our own." That quote from the season two finale, more than anything else, has stuck with me. And I have had a few little ideas floating around for fics about their Army days, but didn't really have a place to put them. So I made this, based on that quote. It has been sitting around unedited and unfinished since May. But I'm finding season three very uninspiring and it's a fun challenge, going back and writing these guys before they knew each other so well, coming up with the ideas of the hardships that forged that friendship. And, as with all my stories, I have no medical training and while I try to keep things accurate, obviously they aren't going to be perfect and sometimes real life's rules have to be bent a little to make a story go where you need it to. But that's why these fics are for fun and not for medical advice.**

 **On with the story!**

MacGyver's eyes were closed when Jack pushed back the curtain surrounding his bed. The metal links rattling across the track echoed throughout the entire medical tent, not that it was very large, but the noise didn't cause the younger man to stir, not even a flinch. Which was a sure sign to Jack that his EOD tech wasn't actually asleep.

"I know you're awake over there, kid." He said crossing his arms with a smile. "Ain't foolin' nobody."

"Except the last two nurses who came in here and decided to leave me alone instead of poking at my arm to see if it's still broken," Mac argued, the corner of his mouth twitching upward in a grin as he opened his eyes and looked over to where Jack was standing. "They said I had about an hour wait before a chopper's free to get me to the hospital, you gonna stand there staring at me the whole time?"

"Nah, guess I'll sit and stare at ya for a while," Jack said as he grabbed the compact chair that was leaning against the bedside table and unfolded it, dropping into it backwards with a sigh, his arms resting against the back as he faced his injured partner. He had become so accustomed to seeing the younger man in khakis and desert camo that he was having a difficult time adjusting to the stark white of the standard issue hospital gown. "So how's the arm? Other than, ya know, crazy messed up. I talked to the doc out there, he said they were shippin' ya over to Kabul to patch it up? Bet it's hurtin' like hell, huh?"

Mac sighed and turned tired eyes towards where his arm had been carefully positioned on a pillow at his side. The unnatural angle it was bent at was painfully obvious even with the sheet covering it. "Not too bad, actually." He nodded towards the IV port hooked up to the bend of his good arm. "That's helping. But yeah, they have to operate to reset it." Mac confirmed, eyebrows drawing together in a frown that Jack swore looked like nerves.

Jack hadn't known the specialist long, but in the past months they had been working together since he reenlisted Jack couldn't think of a single time that he had seen MacGyver actually scared over anything. He had an uncanny ability to keep calm, even in the worst of situations, and seemed to approach every problem as something he could fix. That level-headedness and maturity had finally lead to Jack no longer looking at the younger man and seeing a kid, but rather a comrade. The figure lying in the hospital bed though was quickly reminding Jack just how young his new partner actually was.

"Well if you don't wanna deal with the surgery to put you back together you're gonna have to stop jumpin' off buildings." Jack teased, falling back on his tried and true practice of joking about a situation to lighten the mood.

Mac smiled but Jack's words clearly didn't have the desired effect. "He had a gun, Jack. And I knew you couldn't get a shot off without going through me to hit him. Figured a bullet wound, even a well placed one from you, would for sure get me a medevac off base. Maybe a fall wouldn't." He carefully shrugged his good shoulder. "Calculated risk."

"That still didn't play out in your favor." Jack pointed out, face grim.

"That it didn't." Mac agreed, laying back, closing his eyes and taking measured breaths, trying to make himself relax. "I was really hoping to avoid this."

"Not a fan of these places, huh?" Jack asked, stating the obvious but wondering if their situation was finally going to allow him to get the answers to some of the questions about his new friend's past. His aversion was clearly something more than Jack's own hatred of needles.

Mac shook his head no but didn't respond.

Jack waited a few moments before speaking, Mac's silence basically confirmed his suspicions but he pressed on. "Who'd you lose?"

Mac turned to him, eyes open in surprise, at Jack's question or the fact that he seemed to have already put most of the puzzle pieces together, Jack wasn't sure but he held the younger man's gaze and finally Mac replied, voice wavering. "My mom."

Jack nodded slowly. He knew Mac had some hard feelings towards his father and had been raised by his granddad, so he had guessed as much but had hoped he was wrong. "I'm sorry, kid, that's… I don't even know what to say to that other than I'm sorry."

"She was sick." Mac continued, no longer looking at Jack, staring intently at the curtained wall that gave the illusion of privacy in the crowded medical tent. "She was sick and they didn't catch it in time. They tried, but…" His voice trailed off, they both knew how the story ended, it didn't need an explanation.

"You were young." Jack said.

The words didn't form themselves into a proper question but Mac nodded in response anyway. "Five." The number caused Jack's heart to ache even more. No wonder MacGyver didn't like hospitals.

"Damn." Jack huffed, finding himself in the unusual position of not knowing what to say. Luckily the silence was broken by the grating sound of the curtain being pulled back once more as a nurse poked her head into the room.

"Oh good, you're awake." She said with a smile, stepping around Jack, picking up the clipboard hanging from the foot of the bed, and moving to check Mac's vitals. "I was beginning to wonder if someone had messed up the dosage of those pain meds, you've been out like a light!" The smirk Mac sent Jack's way when the nurse's back was turned got the "I told you so" through loud and clear and left Jack scrambling to cover his surprised laugh with a cough.

"How's your pain level?" She asked, seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on behind her back.

"I'm fine." Mac assured and Jack rolled his eyes. Sure, he knew the kid was tough but his arm was practically snapped in half, he was allowed to admit to feeling it.

"Alright, well don't get too comfy." She said, scribbling something down on the clipboard before hanging it back up. "Your ride out of here will be dropping in any minute."

"I thought ETA was an hour." Mac said as the nervous frown found its way back to his forehead.

"It was, but they had a flight team arrive ahead of schedule. You're next on the list." She explained with a smile as she left, pulling the curtain closed behind her.

"You alright?" Jack asked once they were alone. "You just went all kinds of pale on me. Even more than usual, and that's sayin' something. I thought you Cali boys were supposed to be tan."

"Fine." Mac said with a sigh. "Just a little nervous, I guess. Don't really know what to expect."

"Nothin' to worry about." Jack assured. "Same as a stay in a hospital back home. I've been in that one myself and if it weren't for all the uniforms walkin' around you would think it was back stateside."

Mac huffed a laugh. "Well, I'm sure that'd make me feel better if I'd actually ever had to stay in one back home."

"I'm callin' BS on that." Jack said, shaking his head. "I've seen what that brain of yours can think up, no way one or two of those schemes didn't land you in the emergency room as a kid."

"Yeah, sure." Mac agreed. "A chemical burn here, couple stitches there, but nothing bad enough to be admitted."

"Seriously?" Jack exclaimed. "Not even, like, had your tonsils out or anythin'?"

"Nope." Mac looked around the small curtained off room with a wry smile. "First time for everything, I guess." 

"Well no wonder you're freakin' out!" Jack said as he brought up a hand to rub at the back of his neck. The only experience the kid, and that's what he was, Jack reminded himself again, just a kid, had dealing with hospitals was watching his mom die in one.

"Nervous." Mac corrected, closing his eyes again. "Said I was nervous, not freaked out."

"It's no big deal." Jack promised, voice softening. "Seriously. There'll be a medic on board the chopper, maybe somebody from the hospital too. They'll come in here after they land, check you over, add a shot of the really good stuff to that there IV to knock you out for the ride. Probably won't even bother to wake you up when they land, they'll just take you right on back to the OR, get that arm all fixed up. That's all there is to it."

"Yeah?" Mac asked as hesitant blue eyes met Jack's.

"Yup. That's it." Jack assured with a smile. "You just get to take a nap. When you wake up it'll be over. Spend a couple days there, pretty nurses fightin' over whose turn it is to go check on ya, lounging around in a real bed instead of an army cot and enjoying the air conditioning before they ship you back out here to slum it with the rest of us. They can do PT here and if that goes alright for a week or so they'll put you back on light duty."

"Okay." Mac sighed, some of the tension draining from his shoulders. "That doesn't sound so bad."

"You'll be fine." Jack promised. "I'll make sure of it. That's my job ain't it? Keepin' you safe?"

Mac rolled his eyes. Despite their issues at first, his overwatch really was starting to grow on him. "Keeping me safe from rebel assailants and stray gunmen, sure. Not sure broken bones are covered in your job description."

"My job's takin' care of you. End of the story. Whatever you need to get your job done. And fully functioning arms tend to make diffusing bombs a little bit easier, or so I've been told. So yeah, broken bones, and helping you deal with whatever needs to happen to get you back up and runnin' again, totally part of the deal."

"Thanks, Jack." Mac said with a smile and Jack found himself wondering, not for the first time, if the kid knew what it was like to have someone take care of you, to truly have your six.

Like it or not, he had one now.

Jack slapped his hands on his knees, quickly standing up. His sudden movements startling his partner. "I've gotta go talk to somebody real quick' bud, I'll be right back. You have 'em radio me if that bird drops in before I get back, you hear?" Mac was still nodding his head, confused, as Jack left.

Jack quickly jogged across the base camp, heading straight towards the Captain's office, ignoring the waves and greetings yelled his way as he rushed past. Once there he knocked on the door, three quick raps, before letting himself in.

"What do you want, Dalton?" The older man asked with a sigh, returning to the paperwork on his desk. "A closed door means I'm busy."

"My EOD tech is injured and being shipped to a hospital any minute now. I'd like to fly out with him, Sir." Jack explained, breathless from his trek across the base.

"He can't fly out on his own?" He asked, still not looking up from his paperwork. "This is the same EOD Specialist who kicked your ass when you first met, right?"

"I was holding my own," Jack defended. "But yes, that's him. His name's…"

"I know his name, Dalton." The Captain said with a sigh, finally looking up and meeting Jack's eyes. "Angus MacGyver. I'm the one who signed off on his transportation to Kabul. Emphasis on _his_ transportation. Your name wasn't on the forms. Get back to work."

"Sir, that kid _is_ my job." Jack reminded him, ignoring how the outranking and slightly intimidation man in front of him crossed his arms in defiance. "You made that clear on day one. And I take my job very seriously. I'm going with him."

The Captain smirked. "And if I say no?"

"With all due respect, Sir, I didn't come down here to ask for permission. It was more of an, uh, let's call it a courtesy call. To let you know where I would be. Which is in Kabul with my partner. Sir." He quickly added.

He broke eye contact and began shuffling around the papers on his desk. "You're just going to charm your way onto the chopper then?"

"I've charmed my way into harder-to-get-in places than that." Jack pointed out with a shrug. "And if that don't work, I'll just commandeer one and fly it there myself."

"You know what, Dalton?" The Captain said with a sigh, slamming a stack of papers onto his desk with a thwack. "Go. I'll make the call. At least it'll get you out of my hair for a few days."

"Thank you, Sir." Jack said with a quick salute before quickly exiting the room before the other man changed his mind. He collapsed against the hallway wall in relief as soon as the door was shut behind him; he hadn't been entirely sure that would work.

That was the first, though far from only, time that Jack Dalton would put his career on the line for his partner. The look of relief on Mac's face though, when he heard that Jack would be traveling with him to the hospital, made it entirely worthwhile.

 **So there's that. I've never written pre-series for this fandom before but I kinda liked it! Hope y'all enjoyed it too!**


End file.
